Jon Stewart does a pretty good job with this serious topic. There are 3 parts to the interview. The point out that non-profits do make money. MRIs are one of the first topics discussed and that has been in the news of late with the various charges and prices you get. All the pricing is done with IT infrastructures that build on itself. They don’t even touch the Health IT expenditures and how some of that goes. I do that enough here. Today saw this article about start ups and almost everyone of them looks like it has a model to sell data.

The US doesn’t use it’s buying power he states. Medicare for example is the best paying insurer in town in Florida. Here’s a recent story that talks about complexity and the discounts the insurers negotiate..a carrier paying less than Medicare…

In Part 3 we are getting to the core, a lot of what I talk about government snowed by corporate USA business models and the complexities they build, to make money. If you want to see more about how it works, watch the videos in the left hand side of this blog or visit the “Algo Duped” page.

The high costs are due to excessive outsourcing in many areas. When you outsource remember those on the other end want to make money.

Now for the other side of this too in how analytics used out of context get more of your money, read this article and watch the video and I tell you how analytics are written just to make money sometimes and how it further squeezes you as a consumer and the doctors. Again watch the videos on the left on this blog to see how you get duped and how the profiteering is flawing the data. They didn’t touch on the data selling aspect here but did you know Walgreens made short of $800 million in 2010 selling data only? Read more here. More profits made on top of what is discussed here. We are under the Attack of the Killer Algorithms. BD

Dark Arts of Mathemical Deception

Professor Charlie Siefe of NYU, a mathematician debunks clinical trials, and few other items to where data is spun and fools you, every day example, hear about the perfect butt algorithm and more. These are probably some things you have never thought about but again after listening to what he has to say, it’s time to think about being skeptical. Here’s a radio show that also talks about the same topics.

This video digs in a bit further with how fictitious business models are used by banks and companies do this too. The models are so complex that CEOs don’t even understand them. “Quants, The Alchemists of Wall Street will take you through how “math models” work at banks and financial institutions in a way that even the layman can understand. More videos like over at theAlgo Duping/Killer Algorithm Page. Bank of America will also tell you“IT’ is a business” how they make money.

Weapons of Math Destruction

This is a lecture where Kathy O’Neill, a former Quant who worked for a Hedge Fund (Weapons of Math Destruction) on Wall Street will tell you what is done with your retirement money and more. The banks and companies use technology to take advantage because they can. “Of course we are going to take advantage because our tools are our brains…if they could figure out a way to take advantage of pension funds they would, a good interview with explaining smart money and dumb money.

Algorithms Shape The World

This is a very good presentation done a TED Conference and really was the one that got everyone started thinking about algorithms and today it’s talked about a lot. As he says “if you’re an algorithm, life is looking pretty good, but can’t say the same for humans”. What is a black box? Nobody has any control over the flash crash. We have moved forward a bit but still we are writing the unreadable and lost the sense of some of what is happening. Nice plug for Nanex here with research.